Un bon weekend!

Robert visited Montreal this past weekend with his brother, Jerome, and his mother. I was never good at inviting people into my home. You'll remember that most people have rarely been to my house, if at all. It makes me feel very self-conscious and exposed.

They were kind enough to schlep some stuff that I asked my mother to prepare for me. These items were:

1) a box filled with books (all my Jane Austen, all my Alexandre Dumas, whatever else I might like) and DVDs
2) pink autumn blanket
3) box of Korean instant noodles
4) package of Korean tofu soup mix
5) computer chair
6) stereo
7) a jar of kimchi (because no Korean can live without kimchi)

That's all I asked for. What I got was a car crammed with packages of meat, a case of soy milk boxes, a dozen Asian pears, several cans of tuna and a container of cream cheese on top of everything else that I asked for. (I noticed, with a small suppressed sigh, that the box did not contain half as many books as I would have liked. Dickens instead of Dumas. Ah well.) One pleasant surprise was a box of peanut butter cookies. I was complaining to my brother about being unable to find any in the nearby grocery store and he remembered! I know I call him a doofus, but he does have rare moments of thoughtfulness which is all the more touching when it happens.

So we brought all the stuff up and decided to go for dinner nearby. We walked down Le Parc and went into the Greek restaurant, because it was the first place we noticed after we remembered that we were actually looking for a restaurant. It was very yummy.

The next day, Robert and I walked to the condo where Lilian and Jerome were staying to help move his grandmother's antique icebox to the car. The icebox from the early 20th century, before they had refrigerators. Everyday, you would have a person deliver a block of ice to your house to be placed in one of the compartments, which would help cool the food stored in the other compartments. It was really interesting.

Afterwards, Jerome took Robert and me to a Tibetan restaurant that he used to frequent when he went to McGill. Then we went to see "3:10 to Yuma". I love me some Christian Bale, but have you seen the wrinkles around his eyes? The man has to take care of his skin, really.

We walked back home. Apparently, Jerome went to eat poutine without us. *shake fist* Next time, I'm determined to get some poutine. It's almost sacrilegious that I haven't yet tried poutine despite having lived in Montreal for over a month.

The next morning, Robert and Jerome had to return to Toronto, so we went out for breakfast at Cora's. It was my first time eating there. So yummy. Mmm, western omelette. I wish I could have practiced my French more with the waitress, but she switched to English when she noticed that we were conversing in English. I've noticed people do that quite often here. I still try to talk to my building manager and superintendent in French though.

Robert and Jerome drove away and I managed to walk to school without sniffling too much. It was nice spending the weekend with company and relaxing without having to worry about readings or assignments. *sigh of contentment*

Now to eat all this food...